James o feiel



(No MorleL) J. OPRIEL.

FIRE PROOF FLOOR AND OEILING FOR BUILDINGS.

No. 298,227. Patented May 6, 1884.

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ilNiTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES OFRIEL, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

FIRE-PROOF FLOOR AND CEILING FOR BUILDINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 298,227, dated May 6,1884.

Application filed April 23, 1883. (No model.) v I To all whom it mayconcern Be it known that I, JAMES OFRIEL, of Brooklyn, in the county ofKings and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Fire-ProofFloors and Ceilings for Buildings, of which the following is aspecification.

Buildings have been made with iron beams and cement slabs between suchbeams, resting upon the flanges of the beams. There are two sources ofdifficulty in constructing these floors. The first arises from the factthat it becomes necessary to hold up against the iron beams a platformor table upon which the plastic cement is poured and'rammed, and toelfect this object horses and underpinning have been necessary. Theseinterfere with workmen proceeding with other work in the rooms where theceiling is being formed, and in the removal of these horses orunderpinning and the lowering of the platforms the walls and otherportions are liable to injury. The second difficulty arises from thefact that slabs of cement, while in the process of hardening, are

very liable to injury, while the same block,

after it hardens will be more than ample for withstanding all the strainor concussion towhich it may be subjected.

The object of my present invention is to remove both these difficulties;and it relates to a peculiar manner of constructing the movable tableand the supports for the same, so that they may be clamped to the beamsthemselves and raised or lowered with facility from above, so that theroom below the floor or ceiling that is being laid will be free fromobstruction while the cement is being laid and sets or hardens, and alsoto the manner in which the cement itself is strengthened, so that it canwithstand the jar or pressure to which it 'is subjected after the tablehas been removed from below it and during the hardening operation. Inconsequence of the last-named improvement I am able to remove the tablesfrom below the cement much earlier than it would be safe to do withcement ceilings laid in the ordinary manner, and by the first-namedimprovement the tables can be applied to or removed from the beamswithout unnecessary delay, and the risk of injury to the cement flooris'reduced to a minimum.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a cross-section of the beams and tables.Fig. 2 is a section longitudinally representing the cement in theprogress of laying, and Fig. 3 is a partial plan.

The beams a a are of iron of any desired cross-sectional shape, and ofthe required strength. These are put into the building in the usualmanner.

I provide numerous tables, b b, which are by preference of a width toextend from the cen- 6o ter of one beam a to the center of the next, ornearly so, and of a length that is convenient for handling-say six oreight feetso as not to be too heavy. I, however, remark that thesetables may be wide enough to include three beams, if desired. Each ofthese tables is to be smooth upon the upper surface and provided withthe necessary battens or strips upon the under side to make afirm andstrong table.

I provide bearers dd, that are longer than the distance from one beam orto the next, so as to rest upon such beams a securely, and in each ofsaid bearers there are one or more notches of'a width adapted to receivethe clamping screw-bolts 6. These screw-bolts 6 pass up through thetable. There may be one or more I of such screws to each table,according to the size of such table, and each screw is provided with anut or with a head at ibelow the table, and with a nut, is, upon theupper part of the screw. There is a conical thimble, Z, around eachscrew, and an eye or hook at the upper end of each screw. This eye orhook n is either in the end of the .bolt itself, or by preference in theform of a yoke or turn-buckle to the nut, as shown. The workmen placeupon the beams a movable planks, so as to give footing in placing thetables, and the tables are drawn up from below by ropes or chains hookedinto n. The bearers d are passed beneath the nuts 7c, the screw-boltentering the vertical notch. Then the nuts are screwed up to clamp thetables securely against the under surfaces of the beams a a, carebeingtaken to have the tables in their proper positions relatively to thebeams, and the desired number of tables are to be put into place andsecurely clamped. The slab of artificial stone is "made between thebeams by filling in to the loo desired depth with cement-such asPortland cement-with sand, grave], or broken stone, or

plaster-of-paris, or any suitable cement compound. The depth to whichthe cement is to be filled isindicated by the height of the thimbles l,the cement not being filled above the top of said thimbles. I alsointroduce thwarts t t at suitable distances apart, said thwarts restingat their ends upon the flanges of the iron beams, and being embeddedinto the cement, the cement above said thwarts forming a ridge or ribcrossing from one beam to the next. These thwarts are to be either ofwood oriron. If of wood, they cannot burn, as they are entirely ineased.The object of these thwarts is to stiffen the slab of artificial stoneand aid in keeping it from injury while the cement is in a moistcondition before it becomes entirely consolidated and dry.

Whenone section of the flooring is sulficiently set to beself-supporting, the table can be lowered andused elsewhere. To lowerthe table, the nut 70 only requires to be slackened and the cross-bearer(I removed from beneath it, and a hook at the end of a rope is hookedinto the eye or hooks n and the table and bolt or bolts lowered, and theconical thimble Z will pull down out of the slab of cement and leave ahole therein sufficiently large to allow the eye or hooks to passthrough freely. The rope is unhooked after the table has been lowered tothe floor below. Then the rope is drawn up, and the table transported tothe place where it is next to be used, and drawn up to the beams andsecured, as before. The hole that is left by the drawing out of theconical thimble is to be filled with cement by hand.

I do not claim a centering or arch between the beams supported bytimbers below and bolts passing through cross-bearers above, as this hasbeen done; but the bolts become fast in the cement, and no provision ismade for 0 I attaching ropes to the bolts and lowering the centering ortimbers. By :my improvement the holes in the cement are madesuifieiently large for passing the bolts and the eyes for the ropes bywhich the tables are lowered.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, with the beams and table,of the cross-bearer, the bolt, nuts, eye, and thimble, substantially asset forth.

2. The method herein specified of making slabs of artificial stonebetween iron beams, consisting in drawing up to the under side of thebeams tables and clamping them by means of bolts and bearers, filling inthe space between the beams by a cement resting upon the tables, andforming holes through the cement by thimblcs around the bolts, and thenlowering the tables, after the cement has hardened, by ropes connectedto the bolts and passing through the holes in the cement, substantiallyas set forth.

3. In the formation of slabs of artificial. stone between iron beams,the combination, with the cement, of thwarts resting at their ends uponthe iron beams and ineased in the cement, substantially as and for thepurposesset forth.

4. In combination with the tables I) and the bolts 0, the nuts upon suchbolts, and eyes at their upper ends for ropes to be connected to, andthe notched cross-bearers resting upon 70 the beams, substantially asset forth.

Signed by me this 19th day of April, A. D. 1883.

J AMES 0 FRIEL.

\Vitnesscs:

Gno. T. PINCKNEY, \VILLLUI G. Mo'r'r.

